but right now the obama campaign is solidly and consistently ahead. tactically what that means is the obama campaign has to convert being ahead in people's preferences to actual votes. since they are clearly ahead, a good time to get those votes cast is right now. because thanks to early voting, people are casting ballots right now. so this lead that they have now in the polls can be banked. it can be turned into actual votes while they're still ahead, even if they don't end up being this far ahead by election day. iowa became the first swing state in the nation where voters are actually voting early in person. iowa has interesting rules where if you get enough signatures from your area, you can ask to have a pop-up popping place, sort of like if food places offered voting. obama voters asked for a pop-up voting place at the university of northern iowa. they had the first lady at the go vote now event. they had the first lady speak and they had the university marching band lead people from the audience of the first lady's speech directly to the voting